Post them here if you have a wish list for Nevergrind.

Features high on my personal radar at the moment:

- Mailbox system to mail items to other players.
- Item trading or auction house system.
- Integrated chat system like EverQuest's.
- A Magelo-style page to share character profile data like viewing other player's items, stats, talents, etc.
- Item crafting system
- 2-player multiplayer online. (more difficult)

I'd like to see more RNG scaling with gear, as well as random mods on unique items. It's possible that some of the useless items now could become entirely useful with the right mods rolled on them. It will help players feel unique rather than having the best set of uniques, same as everyone else.

Chat.

Some good ideas, but I will say that most uniques do have random values.

Yeah, good one. Wouldn't be hard to implement as long as my website didn't go super nova viral. If that happened I'd need a more robust solution.

Hi guys,

I'm new here. Played for few days. Love it.

Ok, lets be fair.. this game is good but its success will be driven primarily by old eq nostalgia players. While I'm not going to recommend any specific enhancements, I would highly suggest you stick to eq and try to add "improvements" that closely align with EQ. Not sure what are copyright constraints but I would push it to the limit if I was you. Play to that nostalgia, this is going to be your bread and butter.

For example, ability to "Upgrade Item" was a mistake in my opinion. Sticking to limited selection of items, where each upgrade is important, would have been a better choice.

Again, I have a lot of 'ideas' that I think would have been fantastic for success of this game.. but I dont know what are copyright restrictions associated with eq zones/mobs/cities/abilities/spells, etc..

Mos

Well, there's still time to remove that feature if it is widely considered to be a bad mechanic. It's pretty much the only gold sink at the moment and it's a way for people to upgrade regardless of how bad their equipment is. I have a lot of fun working on this project, so perhaps we'll see quite a lot of fun features get added over time!

Thank you for that quick reply and understanding.

Upgrade Item feature on its own is not necessarily a bad feature but it would need to be coupled with limited item selection or higher difficulty to upgrade. For example requiring additional components to upgrade an item, not just gold. The process needs to be more involved (as in ever questing..) and therefore rewarding, not just gold sink for the sake of gold sink. Which would require mobs to drop quest/crafting items, not just gear. This would also allow you to start very basic crafting, without too much of coding in the beginning.

This is just my opinion on only few days of play.. so take it with a grain of salt.. But I think the kind of crowd(especially paying part) this game will attract will not be happy with click fest and not having deep emotional attachment to each piece of gear they acquire/upgrade over time. Along those same lines.. The ONLY 'feature' that I really don't like so far is the avalanche of items. Personally I think if you reduce it 10x, it may still be a little high.

Ok, here is the feature that adds a little feel of EQ without any copyright issues.. Instead of "random" pull, how about having a little list of "closest" mobs. Each with varying rate of pull success (which may depend on your skill/level). Trying to pull one specific mob does not have a guarantee of pulling that mob. It may pull a different mob or pull "adds" with that mob or pull every thing on the list.

Btw, do you filter your items? There's an option in the filter to block out whites, blues, etc. Probably preferable unless you're a new character.

New to your project and am really enjoying it!! I'll give my 2cp and say that for upgrading items, it would be neat to see a crafting angle on it. IE. Gather x amount of random drops on top of the gold to upgrade an item. Also maybe some sort of paper doll that can reflect your equipped gear. I'm only level 30 and have yet to complete much of the game but that is I've seen so far.

Will all characters be wiped when/if this goes into user accounts? Thanks again, awesome work!

Thank you, sir! I'm looking to make this game more fun each day. I heavily considered wiping local characters completely, but I think this would aggravate too many players. I think I will let local play mode exist until the player base "buys in" to the new account system. Ideally, I'd rather have everyone on accounts because supporting two different modes would slow me down and complicate testing. I think once people are comfortable with accounts I will slowly phase out local play. But I don't want to alienate everyone on day one of launch.

Good idea about upgrading items... that's certainly a part of the game that could be expanded more. Something like breaking down uniques for stackable parts or something like that. Honestly, I am not sure I ever found that part of the game enjoyable even though it seems to be in so many RPGs.

I really like your idea of "buying in" to keep local content. Smart and useful. Another quick note, potions and/or healing items (clickies). There doesnt seem to be too much of access to that just yet from my view.

Crafting is awesome for those who like to utilize it and has always been my personal view that it should keep just under par with quested/raided gear in traditional MMO's.

One of the things that made Everquest so great was that it had a really great balance of adventure and social atmosphere. I used to love going to Castle Mistmoore with my level 50 ranger to farm it to my heart's content in hope of finding great items like the hooded black cloak, the nightshade wreath, and the teeth for the Electrum-Bladed Wakizashi. But I would eventually get tired of that, go to Kelethin, and auction off my wares. I would typically sit in town taking care of business and socializing in chat quite a bit. And then I would get tired of that and get the itch to go to a dungeon or hit mistmoore again.

It struck a nice balance that seemed to keep you playing for a long time. I think if I could create a social environment close to that it would add a new dynamic to the game.

Exactly. It was a player driven economy, it kept the need to be social if you wanted gear or trade items and even buffs. Different types of players and playstyles bring a little something different to the table and all of it working in conjunction now matter how chaotic keeps it alive and growing. Waaaaay back when, casters used to have to make some of their own spells. Rogues had to make their own poisons. Epics even had pieces that needed to be crafted from some skill set. Dependent on your class you needed certain things that you just couldn't always get on your own and thats what brought out the social base and thus an economy. IMHO the biggest downfall in all current MMO types games is the ability to do it all yourself. Makes for streamline play right to the end of content. Once that is met devs can choose to make more content or lose players.

I would love to see an option to bring one of your other characters along as a "pet". I think it would give incentive to collect the extra gear you have and I honestly see it being easier to code than 2 player coop.

As far as actual gameplay goes, an easy sell option at the merchant would be nice. Double click to sell/buy.

I have considered a sort of mercenary system along the lines of Diablo 2. I'll think about that. I think I would rather focus on getting a two-player mode in the game, though.

You can CTRL+left click to fast sell at the vendor. I think it's shown in the options.

I would like to add a followup after playing a little bit longer.

First and foremost FANTASTIC JOB! I'm falling in love with it. This game doesn't disappoint as you level. Hopefully, it doesn't run out of content too quickly I honestly feel that if this game was developed by a major developer this would become my primary game and I would invest significant cash playing it. Would you mind sharing some of your goals for this game long term and amount of time you hope to dedicate supporting and growing this game. I hope you see the type of potential this game has and treat it appropriately

The item drops seem to be "improved" as well. I mostly get blues now, even from most rare mobs. I would still like to to see reduction of item drops (add some vendor trash if you must, but gear should be reduced) but as long as I don't get green/unique items too often I can live with it. You noted "filtering" functionality. I hope you understand that getting rid of the times or inventory management was not my issue. I was asking for limited item table, so when gear drops, its an important event. That emotional uptick is something you will have players coming back for. In EQ I remembered clearly when, where and how I felt when I got for every item on my character. I understand that times have changed and no one would go for such difficult game, but making it a bit harder to get gear would help this game I think. More on this later (this was not intended to be a long post due to time )

Everything I said about Upgrade Item functionality still stands. I simply don't use it because it just doesn't feel right for this game. Please take the crafting angle to it or get rid of it. Simply needing a "component" to upgrade the item every level would be HUGE for this functionality. For example to upgrade from level 1 to 2 required a component that drops regularly (or you can buy it from merchant). Component for 2 to 3 upgrade is a little more rare but still can be found on trash mobs. 3 to 4 drops regularly off rare mobs. 4 to 5 uncommon on rare mobs. etc.. Simple but effective. You don't need to design super complex crafting system.. Still keep the gold requirement as is, to make it a gold sink but add what I suggest. This would allow you to sell highest difficulty components in your cash shop for those that just must have that upgrade now I love the idea of "breaking down" uniques but I just like to stick to simplest suggestions due to the limited time you have before the release.

Last thing.. and this is a game breaker and A MUST ASAP. There needs to be a social aspect to this game. Grinding is great (no joke) but there has to be a way to at least compare yourself to other players and interact. Not talking about grouping here, just interaction and some sort of "bragging" functionality like ranking, etc...

Thank you again for such a fantastic game and for paying attention to us

Great post! Unless the server account launch is a complete disaster, I have no intention of working on anything else. I'm looking forward to fleshing the game out as much as I can. I'm glad you agree that the social component is the most lacking element of the game. But server accounts are a step toward that direction, and you can't have one without the other. That is actually my highest priority post launch. My top four wanted features are chat, "Magelo"-style profile sharing, a mailbox, and item trading.

Interesting thoughts on upgrades. I'll have to give it some thought. Hell, maybe it will even get removed in 1.0? Maybe you're right.

I think it's actually impossible to get a blue from a rare mob???? I thought it was coded to drop a minimum rare item (yellow).

Blues definitely drop from rare mobs.. That said, my definition of rare mobs might be different than yours. The ones that rarely appear and much harder than average drop blues. The ones at the end of the quest, I have not seen dropping blues.

LOVING the idea of magelo style profiles!

Ok back to my favorite subject.. item drops First a question.. Do specific mobs have loot tables or all drops just randomly generated? What i'm getting at is you want people to have a reason to come back and grind in previous "zones". This will drastically increase the amount of content your game has. This would apply to gear and any other crafting/etc.. components you may add. Its a grinding game after all. As it stands you just fly through zones and forget about them.

In my opinion zone replayability is extremely important. Unless you have a team that constantly cranks out content.

Again.. just cant help myself but to say it.. YOU DID A FUCKING AMAZING JOB with this game. Tried several different classes and was pleasantly surprised on uniqueness of them. Lots of great ideas. Much respect.

Slightly off the subject.. Could you please point to any description on how mob multipull works. Just wondering what is the advantage of pulling many mobs at the same time. I know it effects item drops..but how? Is it chaining of mobs (not ending combat) that gradually increase the probability of item drops or having X mobs up when one mob dies increases probability of item dropping on that mob?

EDIT: Just to be clear. When I say "rare" mobs. They may still be named the same as trash mobs, but much harder.

Rare mobs = named mobs, typically in quests or randomly pulled.
Champion mobs = have traits, are upgraded versions of regular mobs

Horde Bonus

Having 5 mobs up at all times is the best possible circumstance for magic find scenarios. In fact if you can manage to fight bosses with 4 mobs helping the boss, the game rewards you for taking this risk. The "horde bonus" is:

2 mobs: 1% increased chance at unique drop
3 mobs: 2.5% increased chance at unique drop
4 mobs: 5% increased chance at unique drop
5 mobs: 8% increased chance at unique drop

So it rewards you for that on top of the chain combo magic find bonuses that you get. Chain combos magic find bonus maxes out at 10% so, if my math is correct, this can combine for 18% increase shot at a unique. Pretty wild, but can you fight 5 mobs at once and achieve a 100-chain combo in a zone with good loot? Probably not. That's why I was careful to make the game very difficult at the higher levels. Even in my own Let's Play video I died so many times!

Loot Tables

Specific mobs do not have loot tables. They merely have a "treasure class" assigned to them which is basically their level. Assigning loot drops to mobs was briefly considered early in development. After all that's how Everquest did it, but then I realized that it would be a tough design to implement in a game that has no navigation or camping or anything like that. The loot design and item drops is more akin to systems seen in action RPGs like Diablo 2. The base item is generated, the rarity is generated, and an item comes out the other side. I am honestly not certain that limiting specific drops to certain mobs would be a great idea for this game. Perhaps in some specific cases, but I didn't really want to lead players by the nose and tell them what items they should be using. That's a big part of their character's uniqueness. An astonishing level of customization is possible by using items in addition to the talent, race, gender, and class choices.

But you definitely have a good point. I should think of some good reasons to farm every boss. Here's one idea I have... perhaps something like killing multiple bosses increases your shot at a legendary item. Now, legendary items aren't in the game at all right now. And they won't be for a while. But I could make it so killing bosses gives you some kind of buff... like "Seeker of Legends" or whatever name. With each boss it would add a stack, so you could potentially get a 9-stack and kill Nalatos with the highest shot at a legendary. Not only would this give you a reason to kill every boss, but it would give you something exotic to hunt for in the end game. This would also pit the people going for loot versus the people going for raw exp. Well, I think this is a cool idea!


Dude! Thanks, that really means a lot to me. As I was designing it I thought I was doing a great job as well. It was like my little secret I was waiting for people to discover. As a first-time game creator with no professional background in programming it feels like a really great achievement to create this game and now it appears that my Kickstarter will be successfully funded *knocks on wood*. A guy on Twitch recently did a review of my game and it was evident that it wasn't his cup of tea and he didn't play beyond Tendolin Meadows. I felt like I was casting pearls before swine. Earlier in his stream he was playing some simplistic game that looked like someone threw together in a few days and he was gushing about that. Truly blew my mind. You can't please everyone, I guess.

Thank you! That helps a lot!

Do not pay much attention to those type of reviews. This game is not for average person. Its a very niche game that fills a VERY GIANT gap for limited audience. Keep in mind though that if you grow it right and stick to core "EQlike" functionality each of your players will be worth 100 in any other game. Majority of your player base will contribute financially, unlike 99.99% of all players in so called great games.

That's a great point you have there, moszis. I think that is self-evident in what we see in the Kickstarter campaign. Just look at the average pledge and compare it to any other campaign similar in scope. Those aren't rich family members funding my campaign. A very large portion are people that love the project and want to help build its future.

One thing I'm curious about is whether this game would appeal to Diablo 2 players. The game is heavily steeped in D2 influence. I haven't caught much traction with that crowd, though.

Diablo 2 influenced functionality is exactly all the parts about this game I DONT like Love D2 (one of my top games of all time).. but its just a game and there are dozens of clones that improved on it.. ALL are better in that regard than this game. However, there are 0 games that have that EQ like atmosphere.. except for this one! Dont get me wrong you did a great job trying to implement D2 style ideas, but you literally have a 0 chance competing with those very high budget development studios that are constantly ripping D2 off and building on it. D2 and EQ simply do not go together, one takes away from the other. If it was me, I would not try to go D2 route. I think you just clarified all my concerns with this game.. I just couldn't put the finger on it

Sorry just trying to be as honest as I can because I wish absolutely the best for this game and its success.